Microsoft to upskill 100,000 in UAE; GITEX Global Highlights
Middle East AI News weekly digest...
Good morning!
Welcome to this week’s Middle East AI News, brought to you by OnDemand, an innovative AI platform which enables you to fast-track AI product development - now with fully customizable autonomous agents!
It’s GITEX GLOBAL week and there is just too much news to fit in one newsletter, so apologies to anyone who feels left out! If you want to see more GITEX news, I’ve been sharing a daily roundup via my LinkedIn profile.
Scroll down to read all the news!
No live show today, but Thursday October 24th I’ll be talking to Tarjama& Founder and CEO Nour Al Hassan about Arabic language AI and the company’s new Arabic LLM! If you want an email invite, please sign up to my events-only email list here.
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Talent
Microsoft to upskill 100,000 UAE government workers in AI
#UAE #skills – Microsoft announced the AI National Skills Initiative at GITEX GLOBAL, which aims to upskill 100,000 government employees across the UAE in AI over the next year. Forging agreements with the governments of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, the initiative aims to make the UAE one of the most prepared AI governments globally. (Middle East AI News)
UAE attracts the most AI talent after the US, says Minister of Economy
#UAE #talent - The UAE is attracting global talent and cultivating homegrown talent to sustain the AI sector’s growth. According to H.E. Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, “The UAE ranks second only to the US in attracting top AI talent, with many of these experts now calling the UAE home,” (Gulf News)
Saudi launches AI Sandbox for digital learning innovation
#Saudi #edtech – Saudi Arabia’s National eLearning Center has launched the AI Sandbox initiative to support innovation in AI-powered digital learning solutions. The initiative will support researchers, developers, and educators in experimenting with AI in education. (SPA)
Economy
Microsoft’s Cloud to contribute over $74b to UAE economy
#UAE #cloud - Microsoft and its partners, along with customers leveraging cloud technologies, could generate $74.4 billion in new revenues for the UAE economy over the next four years, according to new IDC study commissioned by the software giant. Download PDF. (Zawya)
Saudi AI business licence registrations up 48% in Q3 2024
#Saudi #licences – Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Commerce recorded a 48% rise in AI business licence registrations in Q3 2024, with 10,183 licences registered compared to 6,832 in the same quarter last year. (Maal)
GITEX GLOBAL
Over 400 AI startups participate in Expand North Star 2024
#UAE #GITEXGLOBAL - Over 400 award-winning AI startups presented their solutions at Expand North Star 2024. The mega-event was organised by Dubai World Trade Centre and hosted by Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy at Dubai Harbour from October 13-16, alongside GITEX GLOBAL. (WAM)
LLMs
Tarjama& launches Arabic language AI models
#UAE #LLMs– Tarjama& announced the launch of Pronoia, a suite of small language models (SLMs) designed for Arabic-English translation tasks. Pronoia 7B and Pronoia 14B target enterprise-level applications for business, legal, and medical Arabic content. (Middle East AI News)
2A2I starts annotation sprint for Arabic AI dataset
#UAE #evaluation – Arabic AI platform 2A2I has launched a two-week annotation sprint for the A.L. Rage Rag Evaluation benchmark, supported by Hugging Face and Argilla. The project aims to improve Arabic AI datasets. (LinkedIn)
Startups
Presight launches AI startup accelerator
#UAE #startups – Presight has launched a three-month AI Startup Accelerator to support early-stage AI startups. The program allows startups from MENA, South-East Asia, and Central Asia to leverage Presight’s infrastructure, along with G42's resources. (Middle East AI News)
Takalam and G42's Inception partner for AI mental health
#UAE #mentalhealth – Takalam and Inception are partnering to enhance mental healthcare with AI. Their new conversational AI system replaces traditional questionnaires, enabling therapists to capture better patient data. (LinkedIn)
AI Policy
UAE launches foreign policy framework for AI
#UAE #foreignpolicy – The UAE Government has approved its first foreign policy framework for AI, aimed at leading global AI discussions and clarifying the UAE's stance on AI ethics, regulation, and responsible AI use. (Middle East AI News)
UAE and WEF launch AI-powered policy platform
#UAE #policy – The UAE Government and the World Economic Forum have launched a Strategic Intelligence Hub powered by AI to support the implementation of the We the UAE Vision 2031. The platform provides policymakers and experts with insights across 78 policy areas. (Middle East AI News)
Cloud
UAE's e& signs $1b partnership with AWS
#UAE #cloud - UAE telecom e& has signed a deal valued at more than $1 billion with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate the adoption of cloud solutions and drive digital transformation in the region. (The National)
AMD partners with Core42 to accelerate AI and cloud
#UAE #infrastructure– AMD and UAE sovereign cloud leader Core42 have signed a strategic agreement to accelerate AI and secure cloud deployments. Core42 will trial AMD's Instinct GPU accelerators. (Zawya)
Data Centres
Khazna to build largest data centre yet
#UAE #datacentres - Khazna Data Centres, one of the industry's largest operators in the Middle East, will be building a 100-megawatt data centre in Ajman, which will be its biggest in the UAE. The company plans to scale to 840 MW by 2029. (The National)
Damac to invest $1b in Thailand data centres
#Thailand #UAE #datacentres – Dubai’s Edgnex Data Centers, a subsidiary of Damac Group, will invest $1 billion in data centres in Thailand. The first data centre is set to open in Bangkok by March 2025, in partnership with Proen Corp. (Tech In Asia)
M&A
MDS acquires majority stake in UAE AI startup AIdeology
#UAE #infrastructure – MDS System Integration Group has acquired a majority stake in UAE AI startup AIdeology. The startup, an NVIDIA Elite Partner, has been instrumental in deploying large GPU clusters in the Gulf region. (Zawya)
Tawaref acquires Amaana.ai for AI-driven market entry
#Saudi #services – Saudi-based Tawaref has acquired Amaana.ai to enhance business entry into Saudi Arabia. Amaana uses AI to automate market entry processes for companies expanding into the Kingdom. (Wamda)
Smart cities
Presight unveils Intelli AI smart city platform
#UAE #SmartCities – Presight has launched the Intelli smart city platform at GITEX Global. The AI-powered platform supports operational management across smart cities, airports, utilities, and public safety with scalability and seamless integration. (Zawya)
Robotics
Abu Dhabi hosts first-ever IEEE robotics conference
#UAE #robotics – The 36th edition of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) took place at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi this week. This is the first-ever global IEEE robotics conference hosted in the Middle East. (Khalifa University)
Sports
New report on transformative impact of AI in sports
#UAE #sports - Developed in partnership with The Future Laboratory, G42 has published a report on how AI will redefine sport, including strategy, talent scouting, fan engagement, athlete health, and performance. Download PDF. (Zawya)
[ This newsletter was AI edited & human edited ]